The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.

click above image for boxscore

THE GOOD: Mr. Mo Mentum. They say in baseball that momentum is only as good as tomorrow’s starting pitcher. And with the Rays that is the difference between Andy Sonnanstine and Matt Garza. Right now? The Garza Complex is a big league starting pitcher. The Duke is not…Pat Burrell. Pat the Bat may have one of the ugliest swings we have ever seen for a good hitter. It is slow, it is looping, he has terrible balance, kinda like when he runs. And yet he can somehow generate an amazing amount of power. Last night it generated a solo home run and a single in the 8th that grabbed the lead back…Evan Longoria. Dirtbag picked a hell of a time to get hot. In the last4 games he is 8-18 with 2 home runs and 5 driven in…Gregg Zaun. 3 hits including an epic 2-out, 10-pitch duel with Beckett in the 3rd that became an RBI-double.

THE BAD: JP Howell. The Dude once again did not abide, blowing his 8th save, and again doing it on a wild pitch in the 8th inning.

THE TELLING: The Rays are now 5 games behind the Red Sox and 2.5 games behind the Rangers in the Wild Card…The Rays did not attempt a single stolen base last night.

SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Pat Burrell.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

Wade Davis has been promoted and will officially make his big league debut on Sunday against Detroit. That means Andy Sonnanstine will start one of the games on Monday in Replica Yankee Stadium. After these starts, Joe Maddon will decide who stays in the rotation. [Tampa Tribune]

John Romano criticizes Joe Maddon’s hypocrisy of being critical of the fans but then turning around and defending the lackluster play of his team. [The Point After]

Also, in case you missed it, John Romano defended yesterday’s article in our comments section. He makes some fair points and some we don’t agree with, but we will let you decide. [Rays Index]

A Rays employee was arrested after planting a fake bomb as part of a hoax against some fellow employees. [ABC Action News]

18 Comments

What was BJ doing on that sac bunt? I dont know if they showed it on tv, but he did not run it out and looked like he was walking back to the dugout when he realized V-Mart threw home and then had to hustle to get to first. If Tec threw to first after missing the tag he would have had him. Hendricks gave BJ an earful the whole time he was at 1st. I was surprised BJ stayed in the game.

It reminded me a bit of watching very young kids in Little League -- they kind of freeze out there, as though in a moment of crisis they have completely forgotten the basic rules of the game. Not typical major league behavior, however.

At first when Staats screamed "BJ stopped running!" I was thinking 'WTF was he doing?' But the replay showed he stopped in place and took a step or two to his right to keep Martinez from tagging him, but as soon as Martinez threw home BJ ran to first. It was a smart play to avoid the tag and he ran almost instantly once Martinez got rid of the ball. Any delay where he watched the play at the plate was pretty minimal in my opinion. Let's not make a big freaking deal about this -- if Bartlett or Crawford did the exact same thing nobody would have said a word.

If anything I almost threw up in my mouth a little bit on his first bunt attempt where he almost popped it right to Martinez.

I am one of the biggest BJ fans around, but that was pretty poor effort no matter who was running. I didnt see the replay, but after varitec had missed the tag I looked at BJ and he had just started running again. He was more than 2 feet out of the baseline. I honestly thought he was walking back to the dugout. I have never seen Hendricks in someones ear as long as he was on BJ. He cannot continue doing things like that. I can understand he was upset about being asked to bunt but he needs to get over it. If he starts hitting like he is capable he wont see the bunt sign with men on base again.

Did you really just compare Stuart Sternberg to Hugh Culverhouse? Do you remember the state of this franchise at all the last few years under Naimoli? If you and others can't see the difference between now and then maybe there really is no hope for major league baseball in this area. How sad.

There is one valid comparison between Culverhouse and Sternberg to be made, in my view. They run the teams to make a personal profit that may at times exceed their personal desire to win. Culverhouse (who had served as the NFL's tax attorney) was an out-of-towner picked by the league to be the Bucs owner when the initial Tampa ownership group couldn't come up with the franchise fee. Similarly, Sternberg was to some extent recruited by the league when John McHale came in, they hired investment bankers to find an onwnership group to buy out Vince, and they came up with Stu. Like Hugh, Stu is wealthy but not to the point where he can absorb unchecked losses (Stu also has minority partners to deal with, which makes his ability to control budgets a little more complicated.) Culverhouse's first 4 years actually aren't that far off from Stu's. Initial disaster, followed by a build and then a "miracle season" 1979 Bucs=2008 Rays. The 1980 Bucs season was a disapointment (like 2009 Rays), but the Bucs made the playoffs in 1981 and 1982 and then, and only then, did the wheels come off when Culverhouse refused to re-sign Doug Williams, traded the No. 1 pick, etc. (begin suffering). Maybe this is when his mistresses started getting too expensive.

It was a nice win, but....four pitchers to get through the 8th inning? Is there, at the moment, anyone in the bullpen who can consistently get outs? The fact that the Rays bullpen has something like the second best bullpen ERA in the league merely proves how useless ERA is for judging the effectiveness of relief pitching.

BJ needs to be ridden hard...we don't have a team leader that would do it, Maddon wouldn't, Hendricks could, because of the black thing but I've never seen him give a sh_t about anything or anyone.....
I'll never stop saying BJ has to go, because he doesn't fit with the group
of player we have..."unlimited potential" or no the attitude has to go!

I remember Delmon's comment about BJ, "He needs to be up in the big leagues , he's good enough. Like you i only see 89 % max He could have so many more catches, ie, tues nite, if he would play back. You can run faster forward than backward, physics, it never changes. I would prefer to see BJ moved in the winter. He was given ample time in the leadoff spot, didnt improve, moved down didnt respond, and Bartty was battilng 341 between 7th and 9th. Where is the house falling on Mgt. you wan to make a trade that makes me happy? Send Loping BJ cuz he takes long strides, anywhere, even Boston. attitude a downer.

It amazes me how people still harp on this kid night in and night out like he's the only one that f*cks up. I remember the cries about getting rid of Edwin last year, Well that worked out well (insert sarcasm any were you'd like). "Keep Sonny, he's a gamer..." pleeeeeeeeeeeassssssssssssseeeee. I really hope you get your wish so I come back and laugh at that as well.